dignitaries at the celebration
of the ninetieth birthday of William I. received such shouts of
adulation from the populace as those which rent the air when the State
carriage passed which bore the Prince and Princess William and their
three little sons. Of the Princess William, now Empress Augusta
Victoria, there was but one opinion. "None will ever know the blessing
which the Princess William has been to our family," once said her
father-in-law, the Crown Prince Frederick. From the throne to the hut,
blessings followed her, a Christian lady, in faithfulness as wife,
mother, friend, and princess, worthy of her exalted place. At a
lawn-party given for the benefit of the Young Men's Christian
Association, in the magnificent old park of the War Department in the
heart of Berlin, Prince and Princess William were present. The
Princess walked up and down, chatting now with one lady, now with
another, in attire so simple that the plainest there could feel no
unpleasant contrast, and in manner so beautiful and genial that we
could forget the princess in admiration of the unassuming lady.

* * * * *

Of the Empress Frederick much has been said, and much invented, since
the days when she left England, a bride of seventeen, to make her
home in a foreign land.

"Is the Crown Princess popular?" I said to a young German lady, in the
early days of our residence in Berlin.

"Not very."

"She is strong-minded, is she not?"

"Yes, too strong," replied the lady.

Perhaps the Crown Princess Victoria did not sufficiently disguise the
broad difference between her birthright as the heir of the thought and
feeling of her distinguished father, "Prince Albert the Good," and the
low plane still habitual to many German women. She has always been an
Englishwoman; and this was the chief charge I ever heard against her,
in my endeavor to reach the real statement of the case. And yet all
agree that she has been devoted to the best interests of the German
people. Everywhere in humane, benevolent, and educational work, we
found the impress of her guiding hand. A German lady, of rare ability,
sweetness, and culture, was one day giving me the pathetic story of
her hopes and efforts for the elevation and education of her
country-women. In the course of the conversation she was led to quote
a remark made to her by the Crown Princess: "You must _form the
character_ of the German women, before you can do much to elevat